


in the know

by beewarrant



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 80's aesthetic, Alternate Universe - Stranger Things Fusion, Dimension Travel, Government Conspiracy, Human Experimentation, Inspired by Stranger Things (TV 2016), M/M, Psychic Abilities, Stranger Things AU, Supernatural Elements, and more!!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2020-05-15 12:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19295590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beewarrant/pseuds/beewarrant
Summary: Who knew Matt Holt's disappearance would only be the first event in a series of supernatural occurrences in a small town in the middle of nowhere? Coming to terms with monsters, a secret government conspiracy, and the existence of a different dimension right below their own, maybe a boy with psychic powers shouldn't the biggest concern for Lance.Except maybe it is.(Or, a self-indulgent stranger things au)





	1. The vanishing of Matt Holt

**Author's Note:**

> this has been reuploaded because i wasn't entirely happy with the direction it was taking lol. here it is now! uwu

“Of course not, man! Kirk’s definitely not gonna defeat the Gorn by throwing rocks at him!” Pidge exclaimed, gesturing at the screen with her right hand as she hugged a pillow with the other from her spot on the floor of Lance’s basement. And even though they all already knew Kirk actually doesn’t achieve anything by throwing rocks at the creature, fighting over it every time they watched Star Trek was almost a ritual by now.

“Of course he can! If he throws them at the right places!” Hunk replied equally exasperated.

 

“Oh, like what? His pinky toe?”

 

“His head, dumbass!!” Lance interjected.

 

“Matt, come on, tell them they’re wrong.” Pidge said looking at her brother, her hair messy from running her hands through it in frustration. Matt shrugged with a guilty smile on his face.

 

“Sorry, Pidge. I’m with them this time.” Matt replied, and the room burst into argument, which wasn’t much of one with a solid three to one.

 

“Lance!” The yell made all of the voices die down for a second, only to start up again the second Lance stood up and walked toward the basement stairs.

 

“Coming, mom!” He exclaimed back as he climbed up. He found his mom in the living room, reading a book. He lingered by the doorway. Already knowing what she wanted, he still asked,

“What’s up?”

 

She looked up from her place on the armchair with an amused smile on her face.

 

“Your friends were supposed to leave at nine.” She said. Lance raised an eyebrow. She raised an eyebrow back. “It’s nine thirty, love.”

 

At that he widened his eyes dramatically, but still tried to convince her of letting them stay a while longer. He shuffled from one foot to the other and rubbed the back of his neck.

 

“It, uh- it isn’t that late?” He tried hesitantly with a shrug and a smile that somehow fell somewhere between sheepish and cheeky. His mother was, as expected, not convinced.

 

“It’s a school night.” She countered, voice ever so calm. He sighed but gave her an easy smile.

 

“Fine, I’ll go get them.” He said dragging the first word into a sigh, and backed out of the room.

– – –

“Shit, I forgot my backpack.”

 

“Pidge, come on, we’re already late.” Matt looked at her with an exaggerated pout, already on his bike. She rolled her eyes. Like they would get in trouble for it, with their parents being absent for the night and all.

 

“You go ahead, I’ll be right behind you.” She said, already on her way to get back into the house.

 

“Alright, if you say so! But I’m _not_ waiting up” He called after her jokingly and she made a hand gesture with her back still turned to them as she advanced toward the house. He grinned and turned back to Hunk, who had his foot on one of the pedals, ready to go. “Let’s go, dude.” He said.

Hunk nodded, and turned to Lance with a smile that seemed to say _I know you’re freezing and I’m making a conscious decision not to tease you over your low tolerance_. Lance appreciated it.

 

“Bye, Lance. See you tomorrow at school.” Was all he said, and then he and Matt both pedaled away.

 

Lance walked down to the basement to clean up a bit before bed and check in case Pidge needed any help finding her stuff. What he saw instead was her standing there, backpack in one hand and Lance’s only compass in the other. He used to have more but they all met unfortunate fates ─most at the hands of his younger siblings─ throughout the last year and a half. One of these incidents involved a boy from band throwing it to the ground.

 

“Hey, what’s─” He started, but she spoke before he could finish.

 

“How long has your compass been like this?” She asked. Lance frowned slightly. Taken aback by the question he took a bit to answer but then gave a breathy laugh.

 

“You mean broken?” He asked light-heartedly. She nodded looking way too serious for the trivial conversation, but she did that often. “I don’t know, maybe a week, give or take. But I think my little sister might’ve left it on the T.V. after I let her play with it so it really isn’t too surprising.”

 

She nodded again turning to look at him, her expression finally lightening a bit.

 

“I’ll get you one for your birthday then.” She said and raised her backpack over her head with one hand. “Found it.” She stated, matter-of-factly. Lance nodded, and tried not to pay attention to the feeling that there was something she was avoiding as they walked back outside.

 

“See you, Lance.” She said as she got on her bike, and even though she was acting more relaxed now, Lance knew there was definitely something on her mind she wasn’t too indifferent about. He thought of asking.

 

“Bye.” Was what he said instead. She shot him a light trademark smirk before leaving, light reflecting on her glasses. Then she was off.

 

Lance stood there for a second, wondering about the weird gut feeling and trying to push it away; then he shrugged. He was probably just imagining things. It was kind of late after all, and he _did_ have that test on Monday... yeah, he was probably just redirecting his anxieties.

 

Probably. He walked back into the house to avoid the frigid wind.

 

─ ─ ─

 

A few minutes after waving Hunk goodbye as they passed the latter’s home, and being about two minutes away from his own, Matt heard something moving in the bushes of the forest to the road’s right, which would have been much less worrying if it hadn’t been for the growling that quickly followed.

Immediately regretting his decision to take the shortcut—which had close to no public lighting whatsoever–, he started pedaling faster, still looking to the right in case he could see anything amongst the trees. A pointless feat really, it was really dark.

 

When he’d advanced a few feet, he felt safe enough to look ahead again, only to see a humanoid shape in front of him, about ten feet ahead. It was much taller than any human being should be, making those growling nearing on gurgling sounds, and the head was too big and weirdly shaped. He froze. His bike trailed off the road and, with him on it, ended up falling into the forest. He got up and sprinted. His house was about half a mile down the road now, anyway, and with the fear running through his veins, making him feel like he was simultaneously burning and freezing, he barely even felt the distance he ran. He subconsciously felt his legs shaking, threatening to give out every step of the way.

 

He didn’t stop for a second as he went into the house and for the phone. Pidge would hopefully still be at Lance’s so he could warn her not to take the shortcut. When he put the device to his ear though, all he could hear was static. He felt himself go pale and he hung up the phone, all the lights going crazy around him, flickering on and off, changing in intensity quick and erratically, he felt himself go a bit dizzy as he went back to the door. He had to get to Pidge.

They’d ask to stay over at someone’s house, but he had to make sure she was safe first.

 

As he stepped out with no plan but a whole lot of determination, a high pitched sound started reverberating all around. Covering his ears did nothing, which made him wonder if maybe it was inside his head. Looking up at the porch light, he saw it grow brighter and brighter as the sound grew louder, until he could’ve thought the light bulb was going to burst along with his eardrums.

 

And then it was over.

 

─ ─ ─

 

When Pidge got home, all the lights were off except for the one on the porch, and she rolled her eyes. Of course Matt would just walk in and go to bed first thing, and since their parents were out of town until tomorrow morning, there was no one to wait up for her.

 

She said hi to their dog who whined a bit. She assumed it was due to how long they’d been gone and walked into her room, dropping her backpack on the floor and kicking off her shoes carelessly. She threw herself on the bed, placed her glasses on the bedside table and fell asleep in less than a minute. As her consciousness slipped away from her grasp, she barely noticed the bad feeling in her gut.

 

─ ─ ─

 

“Kids! Come on, you’ll be late!”

 

Pidge woke up feeling like shit. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she had slept in jeans, or the fact that yesterday she had replaced water with soda all day, who knows. She felt for her glasses and put them on, looking around groggily.

 

After nearly dying by tripping on the backpack she had neglected last night, she found her mom and dad in the kitchen, already having breakfast. There were two extra plates set out for her and Matt. She rubbed her left eye and yawned loudly.

 

“Good morning, Katie.” Said his dad with a smile. She smiled back, silently wondering how her parents could look so fresh and well-rested at seven in the morning. Maybe it was an adult thing.

 

“How was the wedding, guys?” She asked, and walked over to the table but didn’t sit down as she grabbed a glass and poured some water. Ugh, she was parched. She’d never drink soda ever again and that was a promise.

 

“It was lovely, sweetie, thanks for asking.” Her mom answered taking a sip of her coffee. Then she added, “Can you go check on your brother? Doesn’t seem like he’s waking up without some help.”

 

Pidge nodded, putting the now empty glass down. She purposefully stomped up the stairs to hopefully wake Matt up before she got to his room. When she got there she banged on the door a few times with a loud call of her brother’s name, then stopped. Nothing. No snoring, no yelling or irritated groaning. She frowned and banged again, then listened. Her heart dropped to her stomach as she yanked the door open to find her brother’s bed empty, neatly made like it was the morning after.

She widened her eyes and her heart stopped.

 

“Mom!” Pidge could hear her own voice breaking.

 

─ ─ ─

 

Lance woke up the next day with a feeling of dread set in his stomach, but quickly dismissed it thinking of all the junk food he had eaten last night. He ate just a piece of toast for breakfast, worried that maybe he wouldn’t be able to keep it down.

 

“Hey, you okay?” Asked Allura from the other side of the table, taking a bite of her scrambled eggs. He gave her a half-hearted smile.

 

“Yeah, I’m good, just feeling a bit nauseous.”

 

“Don’t you wanna stay home today, hun? You _are_ looking a bit pale today.” Their mom interjected, placing a cup of tea in front of him.

 

“Nah, ma. It’s okay, it’ll be gone in a couple hours, no need to worry.” He said, smiling and  scrunching up his nose as he dismissed their concerns. His mom and sister both nodded their heads in understanding, his dad had probably took off to work already, and both his younger siblings seemed indifferent to the whole conversation, since Dani was still practically a baby and Leo looked like he was falling asleep on the table.

 

Lance finished his tea and stood up with a deep breath.

 

“Hunk’ll be here soon, I better go wait for him.” He said and went to kiss his mom’s and baby siblings’ cheeks in goodbye. “You coming Lura, or…?”

 

“I’m riding with Shay.” Allura answered.

 

“’Kay, see you at school then, loser.” He waved as he walked out of the kitchen.

“If you need anything come get me, okay?” She called after him and he looked back giving her a quick nod.

 

“Sure will. Bye, guys, see you later!”

 

When he walked out, Hunk was just pulling into his driveway. He quickly greeted him and got on his bike, and they rode to school with light conversation filling the air, bad feeling practically forgotten.

 

─ ─ ─

 

It started nagging at him later, when they didn’t see either of the Holt siblings all morning. It then came back stronger after the bell to lunch rung and Pidge was still nowhere to be seen.

Lance started to let it get to him, making his brain spiral with thoughts that were less than pleasant, and in some cases less than realistic.

 

“You think they’re okay?” Lance asked for the third time in the last ten minutes. Hunk looked

at him and saw his face etched with worry, wringing his hands together as they walked toward the cafeteria. If he was being honest, he was a bit worried as well since their friends would always make sure to let them know through the walkie talkies when one of them would be missing, but telling Lance wouldn’t do either of them any good. And it was surely just a slip, Pidge was probably sleeping and had forgotten.

_But Pidge never forgets anything._ A voice in his head supplied. He ignored it in favor of calming Lance down.

 

“I’m sure they are. Matt is surely around the school somewhere, and Pidge probably just caught a cold. I mean, she did leave a bit later, and she does have a tendency to not wear sweaters. Plus, it was pretty chilly last night, it _is_ October after all.” Hunk shrugged, and Lance nodded, but he didn’t look as convinced as he tried to appear.

 

The entire lunch period dragged on with Lance bouncing his leg up and down. He probably didn’t even realize his nervous tic, and Hunk didn’t mention it.

 

The next day Pidge was, once again, out of sight. No one had answered the phone the night before when they called the Holt household, nor when they tried to communicate through their walkie talkies, so it was officially time to be worried.

During lunch this time they managed to find Takashi Shirogane, one of Matt’s friends from his class. Even though Shiro was only one year ahead of them, he had always appeared older because of how put together he seemed, and although intimidating at first sight, he was actually very nice. The smile he gave them when they walked over just served as proof.

 

“Hunk, Lance! Hey!” He lost the smile though when he saw their worried expressions. “Um… is everything okay?”

 

“Have you seen Matt today?” Lance blurted out. Shiro frowned.

 

“No, he was missing today.” He paused, then added, “and yesterday...” he trailed off, looked at them and something shifted in his eyes.

 

“Why? Something happen?” Shiro asked, a concerned glint starting to take form in his eyes.

The younger boys looked at each other, then Lance looked down and Hunk looked at Shiro.

 

“We don’t know. Pidge hasn’t come to school either, and yesterday no one picked up the phone.” He said. Shiro looked thoughtful and then dismissed it with a hand gesture.

 

“I’m sure everything’s okay. We shouldn’t jump to any conclusions just yet, I’m sure they’ll be here with an explanation, in time. Just keep calm and be patient.” He said, smiled at them a bit tightly, then walked away.

 

Hunk and Lance looked at each other again.

 

“Okay, dude, not to disregard Shiro.” Lance started.” But I think we’re way past that at this point.”

  

─ ─ ─

 

He didn’t remember the last time he stopped to take a breath when he collapsed on the forest floor, his legs burning too much to carry him another step. He rolled onto his back, looked up at the moon above his head, and realized the last time he’d checked the sun had been there. He’d been running all day. A range of emotions quickly ran through his body before it settled on anger.

 

What was he even trying to do? Running away from people who had eyes everywhere, through a terrain he’d never stepped on. For all he knew he had probably been running in circles this whole time, which seemed more than likely. He sighed and closed his eyes, thinking of getting up but being stopped by his exhaustion. The irritation in his gut didn’t subside, but he was way too tired to even scream. And if he could, he wouldn’t because then they would find him and lock him up again, and he’d rather die.

 

A lazy autumn breeze brushed his skin lightly, and he opened his eyes again. The last time he had seen the outside of a lab had been through a window when he was six years old, so the moon had always been such a distant memory it almost felt like a delusion. He managed to smile slightly. He was outside. A small giggle escaped his lips, and the dirt and dead leaves his hands grabbed at the next second were suddenly the most pleasant, beautiful thing he’d ever experienced.

 

The bliss of his newfound freedom lasted barely a minute, and then he passed out on the forest floor, the moon shining bright above him.

 

─ ─ ─

 

The next day at school, Lance felt slightly discouraged. He had asked Allura last night if she’d heard anything from Matt the last couple of days, but she just shook her head, saying she and Shay planned to go to the Holt residence the next day and check if everything was okay. She asked if he wanted to come with, the concern he felt was mirrored on his sister’s face. He agreed. So yes, he wasn’t feeling great, but he wasn’t about to leave Hunk to his own devices just to overthink things at home. He could do that perfectly well at school.

 

Professor Coran stood at the door of the classroom first period, watching as students flooded inside in groups. Lance thought nothing of it as he and Hunk ─Pidge was missing again today─ walked towards the door, until he felt a hand on his shoulder for a brief second to catch his attention.

 

He turned to his teacher.

 

“What’s up?” He asked, an eyebrow raising slightly.

 

“I’m afraid you and Mr. Garrett have been requested to go to the principal’s office.” Mr. Coran said before adding with an easy smile. “And do not worry about assistance for today, just make sure to be up to date with the schoolwork on our next session.”

 

“What? But─“ Lance started protesting, but got interrupted.

 

“No buts, off you go!” Mr. Coran said a bit too cheerfully.

 

“Are we in trouble?” Asked Hunk, eyebrows furrowed.

 

“Only one way to find out.” Mr. Coran said and got inside the classroom, the whole class already sitting down and chattering, and closed the door in their face.

 

They looked at each other and without a word started walking to the principal’s office. Lance could feel tension building up in his muscles the closer they got, and he could feel that same tension in the air as well. When they got there, Lance was surprised to see Allura, Shay, and Shiro there as well. No one else was in the office, not even the principal which was… well, weird.

 

“Hey, guys.” Lance said, still a bit confused by the whole situation. “Do you know what this is all about?” He asked, the three of them shook their heads as Lance and Hunk took a seat.

 

Three minutes passed, and a tiny part of Lance knew this was probably the explanation they’d been waiting for. There was no way that the fact that they were Matt’s friends was a coincidence. Two more minutes passed and in came two police officers and Lance could feel his blood turning to ice as the quiet chatter in the room came to a halt.

 

A few minutes later the officers had introduced themselves and told them they’d just ask some questions, and now sat ─probably as to not seem threatening─ in front of the teens. The one on the left, a tall lanky man with a mustache and ears too big for the rest of his head, was holding a notepad. The one on the right, sturdy and dark haired, put a small cassette recorder on the table in front of him.

 

“So.” Recorder guy said, sitting back a bit, “When was the last time you each saw Matt Holt?”

 

“Why?” Allura asked at the same time as Shay questioned, “Is he missing?”

 

“We can’t tell you anything. Please, just answer the question.” Notepad said.

 

And they did. Lance and Hunk said Tuesday night and told them about the Start Trek marathons, and Allura and Shay said Tuesday after school, explaining how Allura slept over at Shay’s which yes, wasn’t unusual on school nights since Shay lived across the street from the McClain household. Shiro said Tuesday after school as well, saying he’d had football practice but had gone home straight after.

 

And they had to repeat it because apparently the cops couldn’t understand it when they all spoke at the same time.

 

Then they asked what path Matt took to get home, and Hunk answered that he could either take the main road, or use a shortcut down a desolate street at the edge of the forest which saved him about ten minutes, which was why it was the one he usually preferred to use.

 

The cops nodded at each other, thanked them for their time, and sent them on their way promising to let them know if anything happened at their protests. Lance highly doubted they were telling the truth.

 

─ ─ ─

 

When he opened his eyes, the moon was gone and everything looked brighter. Somehow, the light failed to make him feel safer. If anything he felt more exposed, it was easier to see him in the light.

 

He started to consider just staying there and waiting until it was dark again to start moving again, but decided against it. Partly because staying still would only make it easier to catch him, and partly because he felt hunger start to gnaw at his stomach. That’s settled then, he’d find something to eat.

 

Standing up was ridiculously hard to do on tired legs. Every part of him ached, including his lungs from last night’s cold air, but he managed and since he didn’t know where he was or where he should go, he decided to start walking in the direction of his shadow. That way he’d see if someone walked behind him. By the time he found a building, isolated from any others and next to a concrete road, the sun was no longer behind him but above.

 

The structure in front of him was made of windows on the front, and had a sign above reading _Sal’s_ , which didn’t explain much, but the smell and the people he could see inside did, and there was definitely food here. On the side of the building he could see another door, which he walked toward as discreetly as he could. It was unlocked, so he opened it and walked in without a second thought.

 

It lead him to a room, but the walls were covered in shelves full of different foods. He could hear voices and clattering coming from a door on the other side of the room, but his stomach grumbled loudly and made him turn his attention back to his objective. He looked around for a second, and grabbed the first thing in his reach. It was a box, and inside it there were many squishy circles, bread-like in texture, with a square pattern on them. They were cold, but not freezing, and when he took a bite out of one, he found them to be sweet, which was unexpected. He ate one, and was about to grab another when a hand latched onto his left arm, accompanied by an angry yell.

 

He flinched in surprise, looking at the man who was still forcefully grabbing his arm. The man was slightly shorter than him, and had a prominent belly. He wasn’t old, but he was definitely several years older than himself, dark eyes and hair, and a greasy piece of white fabric on top of his clothes.

 

 

“What do you think you’re doing, boy? Stealing from Sal!” He yelled angrily at him, then his eyes went down to the arm he was holding, specifically the tattoo on his forearm. “What’s this?” The man exclaimed again, and he could feel himself panicking. So he did the only thing he could think of.

 

 

Pulling his arm towards his torso, he pushed the man away with his mind, maybe a little bit too hard, he thought when he heard the crash, but didn’t stop to dwell on it. He was already out the door and running back into the trees.

 

─ ─ ─

 

Hunk and Lance had agreed to go to Hunk’s house after school. He told Allura to go on without him to visit the Holts, he and Hunk would go over later.

 

Of course, what they weren’t expecting was for Pidge to already be parked in his driveway, leaning on her bike. She sported the most serious expression Lance had ever seen on her and she directed it at them. Her eyes were reddened, tired, dark circles underlining them; her jaw twitched as she constantly clenched it almost like a nervous tick.

 

“What happened?” Hunk asked with a level voice, even if the police officers’ questions today had given them enough information as to make an educated guess. She walked over to them.

 

“Matt’s missing.” She said. Both boys widened their eyes, and Lance felt his heart fall as their suspicions were confirmed, immediately threw his hands up towards his head. He was hoping it wasn’t true, that they were all making too big a deal out of everything or maybe… _Matt’s missing._ His mouth started forming words on its own accord.

 

“Oh, my God, this can’t be happening. This isn’t happening. A disappearance? In _Hawkins_? That only happens in big cities or… Oh, God, what can we do? What are we supposed to do? Oh, God. Oh my _God_. We have to─” The soon-to-be rant was stopped by Pidge.

 

“The police didn’t take the report seriously at first, and they were doing little to no investigation, but yesterday morning someone found his bike in the forest and took it to the precinct. _Then_ they believed us, but insisted that he was probably at a relative’s house, which is ridiculous because the only extended family we have is hours away by car, and Matt isn’t stupid so whatever happened to him, I’m sure he handled it and I know he’s out there somewhere, and I’m gonna go look for him tonight.” She said, a strong determination in her voice and an almost wild look in her eyes, her voice growing quicker with each word she spoke. The situation gave away that she wasn’t done talking. She wouldn’t have come just to tell them that.

 

“If you want to come with me, I’ll meet you at my house. Eight o’clock.” She said and walked back to her bike. A second of silence, then both boys talking at the same time.

 

“Waaaaay bad idea, man.” Hunk said.

 

“Are you kidding me?!” Lance exclaimed, not out of anger as suggested by his anxious arm movements.

 

“Like, we don’t even know enough to-”

 

“We are not, in any way, the right people to be doing that!!”

 

“-know where we’re going. Besides-”

 

“And I want to help. I do! But we’re not qualified and I can’t help but feel-”

 

“-what if we do more wrong than good? Like alter a clue, or-”

 

“-like something bad’s definitely going to happen-”

 

“-what if we run into the police and become suspects? We won’t be any help then for sure.”

 

“-if we go there tonight.”

 

“Have you thought about that?”

 

“I just know it!!”

 

Pidge stayed with an unimpressed face during the whole thing, and by the end of it she sported a deep frown. When she was certain they were both finished, she got on the bike and repositioned her glasses.

 

“Well, I’m going with or without you. If you’re so worried you might as well come.” And she got on her bike and left before they could protest any more.

 

Lance went back to his own house to search for some stuff that could be useful. In reality he didn’t have many things for a situation like this, but he took what he could, which were four flashlights, his broken compass, a hunting knife his dad had given him when he was nine –which was weird considering his dad didn’t hunt–, a rope too short to be helpful, and his walkie talkie. He also took a hoodie and some sweatpants since they did plan on sleeping over at Pidge’s.

 

He wasn’t entirely satisfied, but knew he didn’t have anything else that could come in handy, so he stuck it all in a backpack and left for Hunk’s house, which his parents didn’t question given it was Friday night and they usually slept over on those days.

 

He found his friend already waiting for him by the sidewalk, so he didn’t stop pedaling, just waved and let Hunk join into his rhythm. They got to Pidge’s house in a few minutes, which was the only upside to living in such a small town.

 

She opened the door before they could knock, so she was probably waiting for them, and they stepped inside. Each of them had a backpack full of things, even if they hadn’t verbally agreed on that. Additionally, Hunk had brought a slingshot, and Pidge was carrying a wooden bat. She told them her parents had been at the police station more than at home the last two days, but they didn’t wanna take her because they didn’t want her to be in such a stressful environment. Lance kind of understood; he wouldn’t want his little siblings at the police station all day either.

 

A cold, strong wind started blowing and a crash of thunder could be heard in the distance as they stepped outside. That couldn’t be a good sign.

 

─ ─ ─

 

It was just as the three of them were walking into the woods that Hunk thought of the most obvious thing they should’ve considered and felt like slapping his friends and himself at least two times.

 

“This is stupid.” Was all he said. Pidge turned to him with her flashlight and blinded him for a few seconds.

 

“Stop being a crybaby.” She said.

 

“I’m not, I’m just saying whatever happened to Matt is very likely to happen to us, too, and

what help will we be then?” He said, matter-of-factly, but still looked around in case he saw anything. No one answered his statement anyway.

 

In the first ten minutes they blindly walked around screaming Matt’s name and looking behind every bush and in every pit with their flashlights pointed, it started raining, and now there was a downpour coming down on them. None of their jackets could do much at fending the rain off, so they were all soaking by now.

 

“Pidge, let’s just go back. We can try again tomorrow.” Lance exclaimed over the sound of the rain.

 

“No! We have to keep going!” She yelled back, a desperate note in her voice.

 

“Lance is right, Pidge. We can barely see two feet ahead of us in this rain, let alone find anything.” Hunk interjected.

 

“Come on, we’ll try again tomorrow, I promise.” Lance said, clearly upset that they couldn’t do anything else.

 

“No! We can’t leave until we find him!!” Pidge said again, turning to look at them with watering eyes and a frown, the determined voice mixed with disappointment and desperation and clearly beyond upset. She knew they wouldn’t find him like this.

 

Lance opened his mouth to try and comfort her, and convince her to try again the next day, maybe take Hunk’s megaphone in case Matt could hear them and answer, but the words never left his lips, because Pidge turned to look at something behind them, and her expression changed entirely. Her eyes widened with all of the desperation and sadness and guilt gone in a split second and replaced with pure confusion and a slowly growing fear, her stance frozen, mouth parted in a silent gasp. _That’s it_. Lance thought. _We’re gonna die. There’s guy in a hockey mask behind me and we’re gonna die._

 

“Guys?” She said hesitantly, fear seeping into her voice as they turned around to look at what she was seeing. His hands were shaking, from fear or cold he didn’t know and he was pretty sure he didn’t care.

 

There was a guy behind him alright, but he wasn’t wearing a hockey mask. In fact, he was barely wearing anything, the only thing protecting him from the downpour being a dirty, torn at the hem hospital gown. His arms were wrapped around himself and he kept shivering because of the cold, looking like he was standing up thanks to a miracle. Underneath his bangs, a pair of dark gray eyes darted quickly between all of them at all of them with tired, alarmed eyes, squinting probably because of the three flashlights pointing at his face.

 

“That’s not Matt.” Hunk’s voice said behind Lance and well, that was a bit of an understatement.


	2. The Weirdo on Maple Street

“Oh, my God.” Said Lance.

 The boy they had found in the woods now sat in front of them in Pidge’s living room, since her parents weren’t gonna be home that night. They were all still wet from the storm, and the boy looked at them cautiously, curling into himself a bit on the couch they had put him. The storm kept on raging outside, thunder and all.

His long-ish black hair was in a choppy, _very_ uneven haircut, and it was plastering to his face, and dark eyes, and he looked no older than Hunk or Lance. It seemed like he would pass out the second he relaxed around them, which didn’t sound likely at the moment.

The three of them pulled aside so they could talk without him overhearing. Apparently, the boy didn’t mind, he just looked around the room moving only his eyes and keeping perfectly still, which was… kind of weird, if Lance was being honest. Hunk’s voice took his attention away from the unusual guest.

 

“So… what are we doing here, guys? Just… just wondering.” He asked, looking to at both of his friends.

“I don’t know.” Pidge said.

“We could ask him who we can call. Like his family or something?” Lance suggested. 

“You really think he’ll tell us? I mean, he definitely looks like someone who escaped from…” He looked at the guy for a second and turned back to them,” _somewhere_.” Hunk seemed unconvinced.

“We don’t lose anything by trying.” Pidge shrugged, looking just as worried as her friends if not more, except Lance could also sense some irritation in the way she was acting, probably because of how horrible the night was turning out to be. They all looked at each other, silently agreeing and then walked over to the couch again. Somehow it had settled on Lance talking, probably because Hunk looked like he was about to faint, and Pidge wasn’t as tactful as the taller boy, so he gave a step to the front and cleared his throat. The boy looked at him, and Lance could see a professionally hidden fear in his eyes as he weakly glared, probably trying to look menacing which was not really working all that well. He was still shaking a bit from the cold. 

“Hey, there, uhm… Do you have a name?” Lance spoke, waving awkwardly and cringing at himself immediately. They boy didn’t answer, just stared at him dropping the tough act in favor of looking almost confused. Lance raised his eyebrows and intertwined his own hands in front of his chest. “Ooookay.” A pause in which he looked at Hunk for help he didn’t get. He continued. “Is there anyone we can call? Your parents? A sibling? Any relatives?”

 The boy stayed quiet, arms still around his torso. They all looked at each other, at a loss of what to do. Hunk stepped up, and the boy turned his head to him quickly as he jerked back from where the other stood, looking alarmed.

 “Did you um… escape from somewhere?” He said, and the boy’s eyes widened just the slightest bit before he managed to hide it, his body and jaw tense. Pidge gasped.

 “You’re a _fugitive_?” She asked a bit louder than usual, startling the boy, who turned his head toward her, a frown put firmly in place now, which went unnoticed by the panicking group in front of him. His head turned wildly around as they all yelled at each other at the same time. Pidge argued she wouldn’t have a criminal in her house, Hunk insisted they call the police, and Lance was telling them to calm down and let the boy explain before he noticed the, again fearful, expression on the boy. Hunk had stopped and was now ranting quietly to himself. Pidge was still yelling though.

“Stop! You’re freaking him out!” Lance exclaimed.

 “He’s freaking  _me_  out!!” She exclaimed back, gesturing towards the boy, who jerked back once more.

 “You really think he’s a fugitive?” Hunk asked, then he turned to the boy. “Are you a fugitive?” He asked, getting no response again. Lance raised his hands in a pacifying manner. 

“Look, let’s all take it easy. He’s just cold, and scared, so are we. Why don’t we solve one of those first?” He said, his friends grumbled back agreements. “Oh-kay, so let’s just give him some clothes first, yeah?”

– – –

They decided on giving him Lance’s change of clothes, and let Lance use some of Matt’s. It had been a bit tricky, getting the boy to change inside the bathroom since he didn’t want the door closed, but Lance had luckily convinced him to at least leave it ajar. He had also gotten him to speak— okay, maybe a “yes” as he agreed to the door being ajar wasn’t much, but it was something, right?–, which let them know he could indeed talk.

As he changed, they were left in the living room to assess the situation properly. 

“Well, he’s obviously missing from somewhere, so-” Lance said, sounding worried. 

“Yeah, the looney bin, probably.” Pidge added, looking at her friend with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t be rude.” Lance told her. She just shrugged.

“So we gotta get help.” Hunk said, dismissing them to address the more pressing issue.

“My parents can’t know I was outside today, man.” Pidge said, eyebrows furrowed in worry.

“I’m sorry, Pidge, but we have to take him to the police.” Hunk said apologetically, making a slight gesture with his hands.

“But-” She started, but Lance interjected.

“Listen, here’s what we can do. We stay here tonight, and take him to my house tomorrow morning, pretend we found him on our way from here to there. Easy peasy!” He said, feigning confidence that was almost convincing but not quite.

 

“That doesn’t sound that bad, but it doesn’t sound like a good plan either.” Pidge said, an eyebrow raised. “Where is he supposed to sleep?”

“Here?” Lance answered, rubbing the back of his neck. Both his friends looked at him funny.

“Are you crazy?” Pidge exclaimed.

“Well, what do you want to do then? Kick him back out into that storm??” Lance countered, gesturing wildly to the window with his left hand. Pidge frowned. 

“Kind of?” She said, irritation seeping slowly into her voice. “We went out there to find my brother, not another problem.” Okay, so it was full blown annoyance now. Cool. Good to know.

“It’s just one night! And then my parents will take over and call the police and we’ll be done with it.” Lance said, his voice coming back to a calmer tone. Hunk was just looking at them with a frown and crossed arms by now. He spoke after that, though.

 “I don’t know, Lance. Letting him sleep here doesn’t sound… good.” He shook his head a bit again. “I mean, the guy didn’t even ask for our help out there, okay? He could be planning to kill us right now for all we know, and you want us to just sleep with him here?”

 “Listen, guys. We can either let him sleep here, or get help right now and let our parents know we were out in the woods in the middle of the night, putting ourselves in danger, while trying to do the police’s job. If that happens, we’ll be grounded forever, and we won’t be able to go look for Matt anymore.” That was the argument that made them all stop and think. Hunk pinched the bridge of his nose, sighed, and looked up again.

 “You’re right.” He shrugged. Pidge frowned worriedly.

 “I hate this.” Pidge added as a way to say she agreed, and was gonna add something else but stopped as the boy walked into the living room dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie that were just slightly too long on him.

“Okay, fine! You can sleep here, but tomorrow morning you’re out, okay?” Pidge said maybe a bit harshly, which was probably fair since it was her house they were risking. The boy looked startled, but gave a tiny nod.

Pidge walked past him toward the stairs.

– – –

They agreed on having the boy sleep in Pidge’s room in case he thrashed anything, and themselves sleeping in her parents’ room, door locked.

Lance had been the one sent to check he settled in the sleeping bag they gave him and didn’t wander off, his friends’ argument being he had already gotten a response out of the boy.

“Hey there.” Lance said when he walked in the room. The boy looked at him from the floor. He wondered how he hadn’t passed out yet, looking as exhausted as he did. His hair was almost dry now. “Hey, um… don’t worry about tomorrow, okay? We won’t kick you out, she’s just scared, and her brother’s missing and that can put you in a bad mood I think.” He said awkwardly, knowing he wouldn’t get another answer anytime soon. Then he realized he had never told him his name.

“Hey, my name is Lance, by the way. Do you, um… do you have a name?” He asked, and the boy nodded. Lance perked up and went to sit close to him. “Yeah?” The boy nodded again, warily, probably because of how close Lance was now. “Could you perhaps, uh, tell me?” He asked, giving him a friendly smile to try and make him feel more at ease.

 The boy went to lift the left sleeve of the hoodie, and revealed a number there, tattooed in black ink. The number nine preceded by two zeroes. Lance was too confused and honesty kind of worried to answer for a few seconds. Why did he have a tattoo?

His worry only increased as he saw a barely there bruise near the crook of his elbow in the soft light. He thought that maybe if he saw it in the daylight it would look vaguely hand-shaped and felt nauseous. Geez, where had he escaped from?

“That’s uh… nice tattoo.” Was all he could muster, eloquently. The boy spoke again.

 “Nine.” He said, looking at Lance as if he made perfect sense.

 “What?” The boy looked at him with a bit of urgency.

 “Nine.” He said, pointing to himself. Lance understood and raised his eyebrows.

 “Ooh! Oh, okay, well. Nine, nice to meet you.” He said, offering his hand. The boy looked confused. Lance smiled at him again and gingerly took his hand, to which he startled a bit before letting himself relax and shyly reciprocate the handshake. “See? Nice to meet you.” Lance repeated, and Nine let the tiniest smile form on his face for a slight second before it disappeared. 

“Okay, so. Goodnight, Nine.” Lance said standing up and walking towards the door.

 “Goodnight, Lance.” The boy said so softly Lance almost didn’t hear him as he turned off the light.

– – –

Lance’s sleep was restless that night, not because he was worried about getting murdered, but because the bad feeling in his gut was still there, even if it was so weak now he could almost not notice it.

– – –

Lance woke up before the sunrise and he couldn’t go back to sleep. He stared at the ceiling for about five minutes before he heard a whisper on the other side of the room.

 

“Hey, Lance, you awake?” Hunk asked. He hummed in affirmation. “You think Matt is okay?”

He felt his heart fall to his stomach. The question had taken him entirely by surprise and for a minute he wasn’t sure what to answer. He even considered pretending he had fallen back asleep, but knew he wouldn’t trick Hunk. Unlike Pidge, who they had come to be friends with two years ago when Pidge skipped a grade and entered freshman year with them even though she was two years younger than them, Hunk and him had been friends since the first day of kindergarten, and twelve years was a lot of time to get to know someone.

 

“I’m sure he is. He’s smart, there’s no way for him to not be okay.” He finally answered, and he believed it, he truly did, but he couldn’t be sure. And he wasn’t sure if smart would be enough to get him back home either.

He closed his eyes even if he knew he wouldn’t fall back asleep.

– – –

They were all up and ready to go by ten o’clock in the morning. Nine– Pidge still didn’t believe that was his name. Hunk just thought it would be cool if it was- looked more tired than he had the night before, and Lance would never admit he was worried, but he was. He had a feeling the boy hadn’t come from a nice place, except there was nothing to efficiently prove that. He hoped the police could do a better job than him.

As they went out the door, what they were least expecting was Shiro walking up the driveway along with Shay. They were both wearing jackets and hats, since last night’s storm had left the town with a very cloudy, very windy weather. They all threw panicked looks at each other when Shay waved at them.

 

“Hey there.” She said when the three of them were on the porch, giving the younger teens a sheepish smile. She sounded cautious. “We heard about your brother, Pidge. We were stopping by to see if you were okay.” Pidge nodded erratically. 

“Yeah, no, we’re– My parents aren’t here.” She then said. Shay looked surprised at her response and energetic demeanor. Shiro looked confused. Then he looked at Nine and smiled.

“Oh, hey! I’m Shiro, and you are-?” He said. Nine didn’t look like he planned on answering. The three of them looked at each other, not doing the best job at disguising their panic.

 “Um… That’s Pidge’s cousin!” Hunk suddenly said. Pidge threw him an angry look, but it was gone in a second before the older teens turned to her. She smiled at them, a bit forced but getting there. Lance smiled uneasily at them as well. 

“Yes. His name is…” Pidge started, and then froze, looking back at them. Lance saw the keys in her hand and hesitantly spoke up.

“Uh… keys?” He said, his voice quiet enough for the others not to hear clearly.

“Keith?” Shay asked with a patient smile, her cheeks blushed from the cold air.

“Yes!” The three of them exclaimed back and then Pidge took over. “Y–yeah! Keith, he’s here because his, uh, his family in the town next to ours is– is helping us look for Matt and so they are visiting except his parents stay in, a hotel? Yes, that’s yeah.”

Hunk and Lance nodded throughout the whole thing, trying their best not to throw nervous glances at each other and look as natural as possible, which wasn’t a big success. Nine just looked a bit confused, almost disinterested. Matt’s senior friends looked nervous and a bit upset, to say the least, but still trying to be polite.

 

“We were about to show him around town!” Lance supplied when Pidge’s voice died down. Hunk perked up.

“Y-Yes! That is– definitely what we were doing, so we  _have_  to go now, guys, we are so sorry, maybe–” He added to Lance’s lie, and Pidge interrupted.

“Maybe come some other time, because we have to go now. Sorry.” She said quickly and they all hurried towards their bikes with nervous smiles, Nine pulled along by Lance. They saw the disconcerted teens wave at them as they left, and Lance felt kind of bad for a second. It was less than the relief he felt as they got to the road, finally out of sight.

He sighed, and hoped things went better when they got to his house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took so long!!


	3. Holly, Jolly

Matt wouldn’t be able to feel his body if it weren’t for the dull pain and the cold around him. When he’d opened his eyes, all he saw was darkness and he decided to close them again and keep them that way as he lain there on what was probably the floor. He was having trouble breathing, the air entering his lungs felt heavy, and it was slightly painful to exhale. It almost felt like water.

A growl like the one he’d heard earlier came from behind him. He opened his eyes and turned around to see the same silhouette from before. He bolted on tired muscles and ran as fast as he could, into the forest.

**– – –**

Lance hadn’t expected his house to be empty, since it almost never was, but his mom had left a note about going to the park with both of his little siblings. Besides them, no one was supposed to be home until later, since Allura had a study group on Sundays, and his dad would be visiting some friends, so there went that. They’d have to wait.

It was probably good, though, to have some time to try and find out what exactly was Nine’s situation here. Of course that would’ve been much easier if the guy answered some of their questions instead of just walking around Lance’s basement,  analyzing every little thing he saw there. Right now he was twirling a small radio in his hands, and looking at it in concentration, eyebrows furrowed. Pidge repeated the question he had asked him a minute ago.

 

“Don’t you have a family? Anyone we can contact for you?” She sounded tired if the bags beneath her eyes were any indication. The boy just looked at her, narrowed his eyes in suspicion, and then shook his head once. Lance perked up a bit at the answer. Progress was progress, right?

“Where did you come from then? Maybe we can get you back there.” He suggested happily, and Nine clutched the radio in his hands and took half a step back, eyebrows set in a frown and stance defensive.

“No.” He said looking at Lance, voice firm. Lance looked at his friends at loss of where to go from there. It was obvious this guy had escaped from somewhere now, but having no clue as to where, he was getting kind of worried. Hunk tightened his mouth from the other end of the couch Lance was sitting on, and then turned to Nine, giving him an unsure smile.

“Listen, man. You  _need_  to work with us here, give us something we can tell the police so they can help you.” He said, trying not to sound frustrated but kind of failing. Nine’s shoulders tensed up more than before, and he would’ve seemed frightened if he hadn’t looked so threatening. His knuckles were white from how tightly he was holding the small radio.

“No police.” He said and his voice was lower now, a kind of static started buzzing in Lance’s ears. He frowned in confusion. Both his friends were wide-eyed and positively panicking, looking at each other, then turning back around.

“Oh-kay, buddy, and why would that be?” Hunk asked, raising his hands in a placating manner as Pidge shuffled nearer to the phone on the table next to her armchair as discreetly as she managed, which was well… not much. Nine was staring at Hunk, breath coming out in short erratic turns, almost like a panic attack. Something was wrong. Lance couldn’t quite pinpoint what. The voices came to him as if he were far away, and he felt as if his body was floating, time seemed to slow down. Why wasn’t Nine running away, or trying to stop Pidge from getting to the phone? He surely noticed her by now, her dialing wasn’t exactly invisible. He felt his body vibrate for a second, and then it stopped suddenly and he was back to normal.

 

It took him a second to process and catch up. Now the radio in Nine’s hands was on, a loud static coming from it, and Pidge was lifting the phone up to her ear, but it suddenly got flung into the wall behind her and shattered. She screamed in surprise and they all covered their faces reflexively. The second the phone broke, the radio stopped. Lance frowned.

 

“What was that?” He asked to no one in particular, but upon seeing his friends he noticed they were both looking at Nine and did the same. There he stood, looking calmer than before, body slightly shaking, radio on the floor. His nose was bleeding, and his left hand was falling back to his side from where it had been lifted in the direction of where the phone had been.

 

It took Lance a few seconds before it clicked in his head, and he immediately discarded the thought. There was no way Nine had been the cause of that. Those things didn’t happen in reality, they were just… His train of thought stopped as Nine’s voice diverted his attention.

 

“Call the police, you’re dead.” He said, looking at them with something close to concern. Lance, strangely, didn’t think that was meant as a threat.

– – –

When Shiro walked into his house, he wasn’t expecting his dad to be there. Being the town’s sheriff meant he had barely been home most of the week, which Shiro now knew was because of Matt’s disappearance. When he stepped into the kitchen his dad smiled tiredly at him from the table.

“Hey there, kid.”

 “Hi, dad.” Shiro smiled softly, trying not to be concerned by how tired his dad looked. “How’s it going?” He asked, and they both knew what he meant.

“We have nothing. We checked with his parents to see if there was any family he could be with in case he had run away, y’know, protocol”, he said, rolling his eyes. Shiro nodded understandingly, since that was obviously not the case. Then his dad continued, “but the boy’s only other family is on the other side of the country.” At that, Shiro frowned a bit. His dad didn’t see, since he had stood up to make some coffee.

“Hey, dad?” He started, then hesitated. Something wasn’t right. He debated whether or not to tell his dad about what had happened with this Keith guy earlier at the Holt household, but decided against it. Something in his gut kept him from bringing it up without talking to Pidge first. There was surely an explanation, no need to worry his dad for nothing.

 

“Hm?” His dad questioned casually. Shiro was at loss of what to say now.

 “Uh… let me do that for you, you go rest, okay?” He finally said, and his dad gave him a grateful, tired smile, and turned to go to the living room. Shiro frowned again as soon as he was alone in the room.

Something weird was going on with those kids and he’d make sure to find out what.

– – –

Hunk paced around the basement, and Pidge was lying face down on the couch. Lance stayed sitting where he was. Nine sat next to him now.

 

“So.” Lance said. “You’re telling us there’s people after you because you have superpowers, and if they find out you were with us they might just kill us.” He looked at the boy, and he nodded, looking confused as to why he needed to confirm what he’d just said. Lance felt lightheaded. He could hear Hunk in the background having a breakdown and talking to himself. Pidge lifted her head from where she was having her own crisis.

 “And couldn’t you have told us that earlier?” She asked, her voice almost a scream. Nine opened his mouth to answer but she spoke again. “I don’t know, maybe you could’ve told us before we picked you off the forest!!” She exclaimed, and Nine flinched slightly.

 “Pidge, he needed help.” Lance said. She seemed angry but he knew she was just scared and stressed.

 

“Yeah, we did help him and he knowingly put us in danger in the process.” She countered. Nine looked away. Hunk didn’t seem to be paying attention as he kept pacing and muttering to himself.

“Well, what’s done is done. He can stay here for a while until we figure out what to do.” Lance said. Pidge let her head fall back down. He turned to Nine. “Hey, don’t worry, okay? We’ll come up with something.” He said with an easy smile. The boy smiled back at him, still barely a smile, the corner of his mouth twitching as if he didn’t smile often. He probably didn’t.

 

Lance couldn’t help but feel bad for him.

 

Eventually all of them managed to calm down and come to terms with the situation, and Hunk and Pidge both went home. Lance ate dinner  with his family around eight, and while his mom tucked his little sister into bed and his dad bathed the baby, he managed to make a grilled cheese and take it downstairs without anyone asking questions. He gave it to Nine, who immediately started eating. Lance remembered they hadn’t had anything to eat that day in the rush of things, and who knows when the boy had last eaten before they found him. He pushed down the guilt as he sat down next to him on the makeshift bed they had managed to make underneath the basement stairs.

 

“Hey, whatcha got there?” Lance asked, noticing Nine was fiddling with his walkie talkie, hair falling in his face and the sandwich hanging from his mouth as he used both his hands to change the channels on the device. Seeing he was not getting an answer, he decided to keep talking as the other boy chose to use one hand to keep eating, and the other one to keep changing channels. “It’s pretty cool, right? I use it to talk to Hunk and Pidge, even if we’re not in the same place. Though the signal doesn’t quite reach Pidge’s house.” Nine turned to look at him when he finished eating.

“Lance.” He said, his voice quiet as it had been the night before. Lance just looked at him. “I’m sorry.” Well now, that one was unexpected.

 “Hey, don’t worry about it, Nine.” He replied with a smile. There was a beat of silence as the dark haired boy grimaced, looking torn, like he was debating something in his head. It took him a bit, but he eventually got a resolute expression on his face and looked at Lance.

“I don’t like that name.” Nine said quietly, turning his attention back to the walkie talkie after he spoke. Lance felt his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

“Well, uh… You could change it.” He suggested with a shrug and the other boy frowned.

“You can’t do that.” He said hesitantly, like he didn’t really know that for certain. It sounded more like a question than a statement. Lance chuckled.

“Sure you can! Which name would you like?” He asked. For a minute it seemed like he wouldn’t get an answer. Lance waited patiently for about three minutes, and was considering to change the subject when, with his attention still on the device in his hands, the boy finally answered.

 

“Keith.”

 

Lance recalled a few hours ago when they ran into Matt’s friends, and felt an emotion he couldn’t quite recognize. He smiled when the boy turned to look at him after answering, looking for some kind of validation, Lance figured.

 

“Keith it is.” He said, then after giving a second look at the boy in front of him added, “Kinda suits you.”

 

Keith gave a tight lipped, sheepish smile. It was gone in a second. He took the last bite of his food, put the walkie talkie aside and straightened his back, but didn’t look up. Lance saw him gradually tense up the longer he sat in silence, and thought he was probably worried about this whole government manhunt situation. He decided that even if he was wrong, a little reassurance wouldn’t hurt.

 

“Hey.” Lance said. Keith looked at him. “Don’t worry, alright? We’ll come up with something, we won’t leave you to deal with this alone, okay?” The other blinked at him, and Lance didn’t know what else to say.

 “Why?” Keith asked. Lance hesitated for a second, then settled on a response.

“Because. That’s what friends do.” He answered, standing up and walking over to the stairs. “Try to get some rest now, okay?” He said. Keith looked like he wanted to say something else, but just nodded. Lance smiled at him and turned off one of the lights.

 “Goodnight, Keith.” He whispered softly as he slowly climbed the stairs.

 “Goodnight, Lance.” The response was too soft to be heard.

That night, although Lance slept better than the one before, he still had a nightmare involving Matt, an endless forest, and a broken compass.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> he's keith now!!


	4. The Diner

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyaaa sorry i disappeared but i'm back now and i have three chapters pre-written, can i hear a wahoo??

The next week found them all at the diner near the highway, since they couldn’t risk going to the one in the busy part of town. It had been a real hassle for Lance to sneak Keith outside of his house, and he really didn’t want to think about getting him back inside later. Getting him into the diner was a struggle as well, mostly because Keith did not want to go in. He kept pulling back and shaking his head until Lance managed to reassure him that it was safe and dragged the partly reluctant boy inside.

 

It was five o’clock and the golden light poured in through the front of the diner. They were sitting in the booth furthest from the door, partially hidden by a few plants and a wall on the hallway to the bathroom. Lance sat next to Keith since the others still did not trust him fully, if at all. He had ordered him a milkshake, same as the rest of them, since the boy didn’t seem to know what half the stuff on the menu was, or how a restaurant worked for that matter. He seemed to like it.

The reason they had met up had been to come up with a way to try and find Matt that did not involve wandering through the forest in the dead of night every two days, since the last few times they had done that they’d found nothing, and were already feeling frustrated. Well, except Keith, that is.

Pidge was starting to get impatient, the whole ordeal getting to her at an exponential rate, the dark circles under her eyes getting worse each day that passed. There was a slight shiver in her hands that was provoked most likely to the immense amounts of coffee she had been consuming lately, which were probably also to blame for her increased irritability in the last week.

 She said they needed to change their strategy to something that worked. Hunk asked what that something would consist of. No one could answer, and they had spent minutes looking at each other silently. Keith looked confused but didn’t ask anything, and after a while of not being able to think of anything, one of the waiters came over to their table and put down a tray of fries.

 

“We did not order those.” Pidge said harshly before she even looked up. Lance did, though, and found Rolo, who last year was a senior at their school and as far as he knew was also one of Matt’s acquaintances. He held a rag in his hand and was smiling at them a bit sadly.

“No, I know. They’re on the house. You’re Matt’s friends, right?” He said, then added, “I heard.” And they all knew what he was talking about. Pidge looked at him, irritation clearly decimating.

“How do you know my brother?” She asked a bit harshly, but she said everything a bit harshly lately so it wasn’t a surprise. Rolo seemed to think she was in her right because his smile never faltered.

“Your brother works at the arcade. Nyma and I spend a fair amount of time there when we can. He’s a cool kid.” He explained, and was about to say something else about it but never did, because the words stopped dead in his throat as he took notice of Keith. “And who’s this? Don’t think I’ve seen you around?” He said, the smile on his lips not as relaxed as he was probably aiming for. Keith, of course, did not answer. Lance did in his place.

“This is Keith! Pidge’s cousin.” He said. She quickly nodded. Rolo seemed a bit suspicious, but he just hummed, eyeing the boy with a knowing expression.

“And where are his parents. He can’t be any older than either of you guys.” He said to Hunk and Lance. It wasn’t really a question, it didn’t sound like it. Pidge answered regardless, probably noticing the older boy’s suspicions and not feeling comfortable with them if her tense shoulders where anything to judge by.

“On a trip.” She said and Hunk gave her a pointed look that lasted less than a second. Rolo let his smile fall, his eyes serious now.

“Uh-huh.” He said, looking at the three of them with what could almost be called severity, which was something Lance had never seen on him. “A real sketchy guy came by a few days ago, asking for someone.”

 “Yeah?” Hunk asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly. Rolo nodded.

“His description sounded an awful lot like your um… cousin.” He said, looking at Keith, whose eyes narrowed as his shoulders visibly tensed. Rolo sighed in false light-heartedness and keep speaking “Sal actually did see the guy around, said he was stealing in the back. Sal got pretty banged up, nothing serious but still…” He trailed off. Then zeroed in on Keith again.

 

“You don’t happen you know what that was about, do ya?”

 

Rolo’s smile was back, except it now felt dangerous as he looked at Keith even though he was definitely trying to hide it. Keith shook his head once, slowly, posture still bordering on defensive, but face impassive. After a few seconds of silence, Rolo’s demeanor dropped, and he was back to his relaxed manner.

 

“Stay out of trouble, kids.” He said, picked up the rag he had left on the table, throwing it on his shoulder and walking away. “Enjoy your fries.” He called back at them and disappeared through the back door.

 The four of them looked at each other worriedly, although Keith looked positively more annoyed than scared. Hunk was the first to speak.

 

“Maybe”, he said, “it wasn’t the best idea to bring him to a public place.”

 

Lance couldn’t agree more.

– – –

They went to Hunk’s house, since it was currently the safest one. Pidge’s was too likely to get visited by either friends of Matt, or by her parents, and the “this is Pidge’s cousin” would likely not work on them that well. And Lance’s had his family, which meant no easy way of sneaking Keith inside. So Hunk’s it was, with his parents working until late.

So they were in Hunk’s bedroom, Lance sitting on the desk chair, Hunk and Pidge on the bed. Keith was roaming the room, closely analyzing everything in sight. Lance was already used to it, but the other too seemed antsy and kept a close eye on Keith’s every action as the three of them discussed the new plan, which was still pretty hazy but ran along the lines of searching for any buildings in the woods and figure out if Matt could be there for whatever reason. Hunk thought it was unlikely.

 

“Well, maybe he got hurt, or lost, found a shelter, and decided staying there would get him found quicker.” She offered. Hunk shrugged.

“It’s worth a try.” He said, and there was an imminent change of subject after agreeing to see each other on Saturday at three, when Keith’s voice interrupted them. He spoke quietly, but since he rarely did that attention was immediately drawn to him.

 

“Matt.” He said. He wasn’t looking at them though.

“Yeah, man. We’re looking for Matt.” Hunk said, which caused Keith to turn his gaze on him and shake his head. Hunk looked at Lance as if asking for help, like he were supposed to know what was going on.

Keith turned to point at something on Hunk’s dresser and repeated himself, looking at them more insistently now, frowning in what appeared to be frustration. Pidge huffed.

 “Yeah! He’s lost and we’re looking for him. We  _know_.” She told him with a snappy voice and an ugly glare, hands in fists, and stood up. Lance had to give it to her, for her size, she was quite intimidating. He stood as well and got closer to Keith, finally seeing he was pointing at a picture. It was Lance and Matt in band practice, and the picture was taken from the bleachers, where Pidge and Hunk usually sat down to wait for them, which was actually how the four of them had started hanging out. The good memories felt like a stab to the heart for Lance.

“He’s not  _lost_.” Keith huffed at her, now seemingly irritated. “He’s hiding.”

 Lance turned to the boy with wide eyes, and a flare of hope in his heart.

“You’ve seen him?” He asked. Keith nodded, and all of them started exclaiming and asking questions way too quickly for any of them to be answered.

“Where is he?”

“Is he in the woods?”

“When did you see him?”

“Did you talk to him?”

“Oh my God, oh my God, do you think he’s still there?”

 

Keith nodded at that last one and they all looked at each other hopefully, Pidge smiling for the first time in what must’ve been three days now. Hunk was practically vibrating with excitement. Lance couldn’t contain the gleeful laugh that left his chest, along with some of the dread that had been eating away at his guts since last week. He turned to Keith, grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes, still smiling widely.

 

“Can you show us where he is?” He asked. Keith looked dazed for a moment, never breaking the eye contact. He blinked once, twice, then nodded, and the other three exploded in cheers as Lance gave Keith a quick hug before he turned to his two friends, who were already moving around the room, collecting stuff much like they’d done the first night they went into the forest.

Lance looked back at Keith, and managed to catch a worried glint in his eye and a small grimace that were gone as soon as the boy noticed he was being watched. He gave Lance a small smile, but didn’t manage to hide his concern.

 

Lance suddenly didn’t feel so sure about anything.

– – –

Shiro had agreed to stop by the diner near the highway on their way home, because Allura wanted to return a sweater she had borrowed from Nyma last time they’d hung out. They had already dropped off Shay, as her house was on the way to said diner.

Allura disappeared into the back almost immediately after entering, leaving Shiro to wait at the counter on his own, in the silence of the already closed diner. The lights were on until the last person left, but costumers weren’t allowed inside anymore. By the looks of it though, they were the only people left.

 

“Fancy a cup of coffee?” A voice asked, and as he looked up he found Rolo in front of him, two mugs in his hands. He smiled and nodded with a small tired smile.

“Aren’t diners supposed to be open 24 hours?” Shiro asked, taking the offered cup in his hands. Rolo sighed, leaning on the counter, and taking a sip from his own cup.

 “Supposedly. Most of them.” He said, then smiled. “There isn’t enough staff for it to run like that though.”  Shiro chuckled.

“Sal not in today either then?” He asked. Rolo shook his head.

“Nah, he’s still working only twice a week. Says his back is all banged up but I saw him running behind an ice-cream truck on Monday.” Rolo answered, shaking his head a bit. “I don’t mind though, Nyma and I both get paid extra time since he isn’t here to cover it.”

There was a small silence after that, in which they both just drank from their cups. Shiro sighed a bit, rubbing at his eyes, and the silence was broken.

 

“Long day?” Rolo asked as Shiro took another sip from his coffee.

“I guess. You?”

“Eh, same old.” Another sip. “How’s school?”

“Same as always. Lab 3 is still falling apart.” Shiro said. Rolo laughed.

“What a nightmare. I’m glad that’s over for me.” He said. Allura and Nyma came out of the kitchen the two of them talking animatedly as Nyma slowly walked towards the light panel hidden under a decorative piece on the wall of the bathroom’s hall, to Shiro’s right. “Time to go, it seems.” Rolo said, took both of their cups which were nearly empty and quickly washed them and left them next to the sink.

“How much for the coffee?” Shiro asked. Rolo dismissed him with a hand gesture.

“On the house.” He replied. Nyma snorted.

“You gotta stop giving stuff away, or your paycheck’s gonna be non-existent.” She said light-heartedly. He chuckled.

“My paycheck’s already non-existent.” Shiro wasn’t sure if Nyma hear him, since she was already back to chatting with Allura as she started flipping switches and the space around them went dark bit by bit.

 

As they walked out into the night and towards a more populated side of town, towards their homes, Shiro turned to Rolo.

“Tend to give away coffee then?” He asked. Rolo laughed.

“Just today. Saw the Holt girl and her friends, gave them some fries.” He clarified, then his smile faded. “The kids need them after everything that’s happened. And you looked like you needed that coffee as well.”

 

Shiro didn’t know what to answer. The girls walked ahead, arms linked as they kept chattering non-stop. Shiro wishes he could be that socially articulate.

“There was someone else, though.” Rolo’s voice diverted his attention back to the conversation. When Shiro looked back at him, he noticed the serious look on his face. “They were running around with that cousin of hers. Said his parents are on a trip but-” He stopped.

“But?” Shiro asked, interested. Rolo suddenly smiled again, and did the same hand gesture he did before, dismissing Shiro.

“Nevermind. I’m just paranoid, for sure.” He said.

“No, tell me.” Shiro insisted, and he hoped it sounded more interested than pushy, but he couldn’t be sure. Rolo sighed, dropped his shoulders and his smile, though the serious expression wasn’t back. Now he just looked tired.

“I just feel like– like something doesn’t quite click there, is all. Like something’s off.” He said, looking down for a few seconds, then turning back to Shiro with a weak attempt at a reassuring smile. “But I’ve felt like that for about a week now, so it’s probably just that.”

 Shiro didn’t answer, just absent-mindedly nodded, looking back toward the front.

 It wasn’t until he woke up the next morning that he remembered.

_“–his family in the town next to ours is– is helping us look for Matt and so they are visiting except his parents stay in, a hotel…”_


	5. The Body

In hindsight, maybe it would’ve been a better idea to go search for Matt in the daytime, but Pidge had insisted on doing it as soon as possible so they wouldn’t lose time and both her friends agreed. Keith didn’t much look like he cared about the time. So Lance had left Keith with Hunk and gone home to grab his flashlight, a jacket, and his walkie talkie, and had later snuck out through his window after saying goodnight to his mom. He wasn’t a fan of lying to her but desperate times call for desperate measures or whatever.

So they ended up walking through the woods past eleven with their bikes by their sides, Keith walking ahead with Hunk, Pidge right behind them next to Lance. They had been walking silently the whole time, except for a quiet “this way” Keith had muttered about eight minutes ago before turning right. Now though, said silence was finally getting broken by Hunk.

 

“So, Keith. How long have you been able to fling phones into walls with um… your mind?” He asked, giving the boy an unsure smile that got ignored. All Keith did was stop, and turn his head around the area like he was looking for something, except his eyes were closed. They all stopped as well, Hunk and Lance looking worriedly at each other, and Pidge’s attention fixed on Keith, as well as her (suddenly flickering) flashlight. Lance wondered if that was a coincidence or if the quiet boy had anything to do with it.

Then Keith’s eyes opened so suddenly Lance jumped back a little in surprise, and turned harshly to look to their right. They all slowly turned in the same direction, and Lance could see a tiny house they hadn’t noticed before in the dark, probably inhabited if the lack of a door was anything to go by, standing about a hundred feet away. He got a bit startled by the voice coming from his left, quiet as ever.

“In there.” Said Keith with his eyes on the house, sending a pointed look at Pidge as he said the next words. “He’s hiding.”

It took Pidge less than a second to drop her bike and start running towards the tiny worn down building. With one last look from Hunk, he and Lance did the same with their bikes and sprinted to catch up with her, Lance pulling Keith along with him since a part of him felt entirely not comfortable with leaving the boy by himself out here at night. He didn’t know if this was due to the ill gut feeling he’d had as of lately, or just a natural response he’d have with any of his friends, but he didn’t really care.

Finally getting to the entrance of the house, a bit delayed by the fact that Keith didn’t seem thrilled by the idea of being anywhere near it, Lance felt his stomach drop at the scene he encountered.

The shack was a single big space, no rooms to look into, no furniture, no places to hide, and yet…

 

“He isn’t here!!” Pidge screamed at the top of her lungs, frustrated, angry, as she violently threw the flashlight to the ground, making Hunk take a step back from where he was standing by her side. She turned her gaze back to the door, and the second her eyes were on Keith, her entire face scrunched up with rage. She marched toward them and Lance felt himself step backwards, hand still above Keith’s elbow. When she was in front of him, she spoke again.

“You said he’d be here! You said you saw him!!” She exclaimed, pointing both of her sentences by shoving her index finger into his chest, making the boy give tiny steps back each time looking startled. Lance lifted his hand from Keith’s arm to raise it placatingly in her direction.

“Pidge, listen, we–” He started, but got interrupted by the sound of police sirens nearby which were quickly followed by the red and blue lights and the sound of the police cars driving on the road. Lance could see them through the trees about 300 feet from where they were, and when had they walked so far? Looking at his friends, Pidge’s anger forgotten as suggested by her surprised expression, Lance knew they would be following them.

– – –

The run towards the bikes was much quicker, since Keith seemed more than eager to get away from the shack. It wasn’t hard to follow the police cars, since the highway was one way, and ran straight without any intersections for a long distance, and when they finally found them they were pulled over along with two ambulances, and a firetruck near the quarry, about ten minutes away from Pidge’s house, twenty from the town centre, set in the outskirts of town  meant rarely anyone was ever there. Lance, personally, had only ever been to the quarry twice.

Getting there, they all hid behind one of the ambulances and watched as the firemen pulled something out of the water, Lance’s anxiety increased by the second, he could feel it building up in his stomach like a wildfire, which was weird because he could also feel his extremities getting cold.

 

“Doesn’t seem like it has anything to do with Matt.” Hunk said, and Lance started to nod, his words actually helping to diminish some of the fire in his gut, but immediately stopped when they got a hint of what they were pulling out. A body. His heart stopped, and he would’ve looked at his friends if he wasn’t frozen in place, eyes locked on the form slowly being hauled up and onto a stretcher, where Lance could clearly see the mop of brown hair atop his head, and his freckled nose, the red gash on his cheek that wasn’t bleeding anymore but clearly had at some point. One of the canvas shoes he wore everyday was still on his left foot, the other one bare, and that hoodie they were all so used to was ripped at the sleeves. The exact same clothes he had been wearing the last time they saw him. Lance was suddenly not seeing the scene and instead he was off to the side, and he didn’t remember vomiting but apparently he had if the taste in his mouth was any proof of it. His ears were ringing. He felt unreal.

He straightened up, and saw his friends just as distraught as he was. Pidge seemed unable to move, and Hunk was paler than Lance had ever seen him, leaning on the ambulance. Keith’s eyes were wide, but more than anything he looked confused, which to Lance seemed like a weird reaction to the situation. He still felt sick but with each second that passed the ringing got quieter, and he heard Pidge whisper something through it.

“What?” He asked, his voice scruffy and shivering and too quiet due to the tears that he didn’t realize were trying to fight their way into his eyes. Pidge balled her hands into fists, knuckles white from where she was crouching on the floor, head down so it was impossible to see her face from where Lance was standing to her right. Her whole body started trembling.

“You liar.” She said quietly and now Lance managed to hear her and knew what was gonna happen before it did. She stood abruptly and turned to look at Keith, tears falling down her cheeks steadily, “You liar!!” She repeated, now a scream. Enraged, frustrated, hurt. She stomped towards Keith, making him back up a few steps tripping on his own feet before he stopped and let her get to him.

“Do you think this is a  _fucking_  game? Huh?” She exclaimed, her voice breaking both because of the tears and in anger. “You think it’s  _funny_ that my brother’s missing? Is that it?” She pressed further, flinging her arms around, hands still in fists, Keith wincing almost unnoticeably everytime they got too close to him.

“Pidge, we don’t know if he w–” Lance started quietly, trying to get his voice under control even as the tears managed to fall from his eyes. He got interrupted.

“Yes, of course he was _lying_ , Lance!!” She screamed, now turning to him. “Why can’t you see? He just said that so we would like him. So he could keep taking advantage of us!! That’s it!” She said, her breathing and movements erratic. Hunk tried to intervene next, taking a step towards her with his hands in front of him, tears running freely down his face as well.

“Come on, Pidge, he couldn’t have known–” He started, his voice breaking, sounding so hurt and tired Lance almost couldn’t bear it.

“No!” Pidge roared. “He’s a fucking  _monster!_ ” She said with venom in her voice, and Keith flinched. She looked at all of them with her eyes narrowed but the tears still flowing _._  She let out a sob, looked at them one last time before wiping her cheeks and grabbing her bike, quickly disappearing on the road.

 Lance let himself fall to the ground, hands pressing firmly into his eyes as he cried. The only thing he could hear for a while were his own sobs.

– – –

When Lance got home it was already one or two in the morning, but since his mom thought he’d gone to bed hours ago there was no one around waiting for him, and sneaking Keith inside through the basement window was easier than sneaking him out before had been. They hadn’t talked all the way back, and both of them seemed as angry as the other was, but the second they were both standing in the basement Lance finally spoke.

 

“What are you even angry about?” He asked in a whisper. Getting caught now wouldn’t do any good. Keith turned to him and Lance was surprised to see he wasn’t frowning anymore. Instead he looked guilty and even sad.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen.”  He said quietly, arms wrapped tightly around his torso. Lance opened his mouth even though he didn’t know what he’d answer, but in the end he didn’t have to. Keith frowned again and tensed, some of the irritation back in his expression as he spoke before Lance. “But I’m  _not_  a liar.” He said harshly, and this was probably the loudest Lance had ever heard him talk.

He felt his anger bubble down in his chest, and his face soften as he took two steps toward the other boy.

“Hey, listen. I never thought you were a liar just…”, his throat closing up made it hard to speak the next sentence, and it did sound choked up, “that we’d been too late.” He said quietly. His eyes started watering again, and he closed them to stop the tears. His breath was a bit heavier now. The second he collected himself he turned to Keith, giving him an attempt at a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry about it, just go to sleep.” He told him, starting to walk towards the stairs, but then from behind him the other boy spoke.

“Matt’s not dead.” Keith said, and Lance turned around so fast he got whiplash.

“What? What do yo–”

“I can prove it.” He added, there was a determined fire in his eyes. Lance’s mind felt slow, and he couldn’t keep up with the conversation. He shook his head trying to make his brain work faster.

“I– You– How?” He said, finally, looking at Keith, who simply reached to turn him around and get something from Lance’s backpack. When he was turned back around, his walkie talkie was in Keith’s hands, and he was fiddling with it as he did almost every night, except now the lights in Lance’s basement flickered on and off, a tiny drop of blood flowing from Keiths nose slightly. Lance could feel the static making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. There was a high pitched noise coming from the walkie talkie in Keith’s hands, and then suddenly it was undoubtedly Matt’s voice coming through the speakers, humming a song.

Lance’s eyes widened impossibly as he got closer and clicked the button on top of  the walkie talkie, being mindful to keep it in Keith’s hands.

 

“Matt? Matt is that you??” He asked, his voice going a bit louder than maybe it should if he wanted to not be heard. He released the button, Matt’s breath having picked up.

“Lance? Where–?” The sound broke and it was back to static, all the lights flickering back off as they were before, and Keith lost his balance, Lance managing to catch him but letting himself slide to the ground along with the boy in his arms. Both of them had their breath worked up as if they had been running, Lance because of the surprise, and Keith probably because of the effort.

“That… that was–” He started, still too astonished by what had just happened.

“Matt.” Keith completed, voice back to being quiet, lifting his head to look at Lance, who immediately enveloped him in a tight hug, relieved tears falling from his eyes as he giggled quietly.

 

“Thank you, Keith.”

 Keith didn’t answer.


	6. The Funeral

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry, i'm back!! quarantine got me writing lol

Matt didn’t remember the last time he had opened his eyes. He couldn’t help but wonder if they would even work when he finally did, and the fear that they wouldn’t took any motivation he had to do so in the first place.

He didn’t know how long he had been there, or where he was for that matter. He only knew the air didn’t feel like it had oxygen, and that there wasn’t anyone else here that he knew of. When he first had woken up he hadn’t stopped running until his legs gave out, and then he crawled and managed to find a tiny cabin that looked like it was a breeze from falling to the ground. Good thing the air didn’t move at all with it’s water-like composition.

He had gone in and curled up in a corner, wrapping his jacket around him as close as he could, because another thing about that place is it was  _cold._ Really cold. He thanked God he had decided to use a sweater underneath the jacket. He could barely feel his limbs upon what felt like five minutes of being curled up there, and he went into a trance like state. He wasn’t asleep but he didn’t feel awake either.

And he stayed there for what could’ve been hours, days, or weeks. Even months, he wasn’t sure. All he knew is that the feeling in his throat like he needed to cough but couldn’t only got stronger so gradually it was almost unnoticeable.

Many times he found himself humming or even singing to himself when he found the strength. He did it whenever he felt himself slipping away from reality, even though a part of his brain told him it was useless when he was so far from reality it might very well have been just a dream. Sometimes he actually didn’t believe his life had ever happened, and he was just a nameless figure in a nameless void humming a nameless tune for nothing.

An illusion. That’s what reality started being to him.

 

After a while he was almost sure he had made everyone up. His friends, his family, his teachers and neighbors, their town, and he would’ve cried if he had any determination left. His humming wasn’t doing anything to guard off the horrible lie he was coming to believe true. And then he heard it.

 

_Matt? Matt is that you??_

It was coming from all around him and there was no way it was in his head. His eyes snapped open and his body jerked into a sitting position, and the sudden movement felt foreign. His eyes were blinded by the minimum of light that was all the horrible void had ever known. He felt like he had been brought back to life, like his brain was a pile of wood that he had finally managed to light fire to. And the spark was that voice.

 

“Lance? Where are you?” He said, his voice hoarse and weak. He waited. No response. “Lance??” He asked again. He asked for help, hoping Lance would hear him even if he couldn’t answer. A part of him knew Lance wasn’t listening anymore.

Still, he tried. And he had gotten that back and would make sure he wouldn’t lose it again. He would keep trying.

This time, when he had to fall asleep, he did so sitting up.

– – –

Matt’s funeral was hands down the worst day Lance had ever had.

Pidge looked so tired, and angry, and just  _lost_. Hunk couldn’t stop crying through the whole thing, and it broke Lance’s heart. He would be crying too, for days on end, if he hadn’t just found out Matt was in fact alive and they still had a chance to help him. Still, the whole thing was somehow so real and terrible it made him feel sad and empty the entire day.

 

Lance was planning on telling Pidge about the night before, but never got the chance, since she and her family were surrounded by people the whole time, which was not a perfect situation to drop the “hey I think your brother might be alive” on. So he waited and never got a chance. He planned to tell her on Monday.

Looking over at Hunk, who he could easily give the news to, it hit him that if he didn’t want to cause his friend an actual aneurism from such an emotional rollercoaster ride, he’d have to wait until tomorrow to tell as well. He sighed and knew they’d never be ready, but still decided to give them another day.

During the reception he did end up crying. He ended up leaving earlier than planned.

– – –

Keith held the walkie talkie tightly in his hands, and took a deep breath. His eyes were closed, and he tried to connect to Matt once again, to see where the boy was. It was his fourth attempt, but when he managed to find him he was at the same cabin as the previous three. He snapped his eyes open, and flung the walkie talkie into the wall in front of him in frustration. It fell with a thud to the floor, not broken, which made a wave of relief wash through Keith. He wouldn’t have liked to break it.

Lance told him he’d be alone for a few hours, and that he could go up for a bit if he wanted to, so after a few seconds of debating it, he stood up and walked slowly upstairs, looking around. He had never seen the rest of the house in detail, he was always outside or in the basement.

The house was nice, spacious. The door of the basement led him out into a hallway, some stairs to his left and to his right a door that seemed to go outside. To the sides of the door there were two other entrances, the left one to a room that only had a table in it, and the right one towards a room pretty much like the one downstairs, except there were more couches and the television, Lance had called it, was bigger. He didn’t have much knowledge about any machines that weren’t related to radio waves, and if he was honest, he was hardly aware there were different kinds.

A surge of anger rose in his chest at how little he knew of the world. At how little he had gotten to interact with. He felt out of place here, where people were constantly asking him questions he didn’t know how to answer, and he felt out of place at the labs, where they asked questions he didn’t want to answer.

 

_Find this man and tell us what he’s saying._

 

The memory managed to anger him even more. He hadn’t managed to find the man on time and he’d been put in the tiny room next to his own. He hated it. He hated the scientists, he hated the labs, he hated the radios, and he hated his powers.

He hated everytime they made him lift or crush things without touching them. He absolutely loaded having to repeat what the people he had to find were saying just because he couldn’t connect them to radio the first couple years.

His blood ran from hot to cold when he heard the lock on the front door turning, and his stomach dropped when it flung open. He turned back and saw someone walk in which made him freeze for one milisecond before he realized it was Lance.

Lance, who noticed him as he closed the door and gave him a warm smile as he always did. A warm smile Keith didn’t feel like he deserved even though it was the one thing he liked the most.

 

“Hey there, Keith.” He said after.

“Lance.”

“Having fun in the living room?” He asked light-heartedly, taking off his coat to put him in the hanging rack next to the door. Keith gave his best attempt at a smile, even though he felt rigid and unnatural doing so.

“It’s not nighttime.” He blurted out and felt dumb after. Lance looked at him. He felt dumber.

“No. No it isn’t.” He conceded softly, looking like he didn’t get the point. He probably didn’t.

“You said you’d be gone until nighttime.” Keith clarified. Lance chuckled.

“I didn’t wanna be there anymore.” He dismissed walking into the living room and standing in front of Keith. “You must be starving. Wanna cook something? We have about two hours until the service ends.” The kind smile was back. Keith nodded.

And as Lance stacked pancakes on a plate while telling him there was nothing wrong with having breakfast for dinner, Keith realized two things: one, he had no idea some food was meant for a particular meal; and two, he hated the people at the lab, but he didn’t hate the people in the real world. In fact, he kind of liked them.

– – –

It had taken Lance a bit of time to convince Pidge of coming to his house to talk to Keith, since she had gone to the morgue with her parents for body recognition and was convinced it was Matt on the slab, but eventually she’d agreed. Hunk had been a great deal easier to convince since he hadn’t even started to believe Matt was dead, so on Wednesday they were all sitting in a circle on Lance’s basement floor after school, Keith in between Lance and Hunk since Pidge was still a bit reluctant about having him on the team.

In Keith’s hands was the radio he had been analyzing on his first night at Lance’s house, since he had claimed the night before it made it easier for him to reach Matt than the walkie talkie did. Lance didn’t really ask the scientific reason to that because Keith always got defensive and quieter when anyone tried to talk to him about his abilities, but he assumed it had something to do with the capacity to catch radiowaves from much further. Still, he decided to not ask anything until he knew he was allowed to.

Currently the lights were flickering a bit less than they had the night after the lookout, and the radio was emitting some mad static in Keith’s hands. His eyes were closed again, and his face was scrunched up with effort. Hunk leaned forward a bit when something unintelligible started to come through the white noise. A few seconds later, it cleared into a voice. It was definitely Matt’s voice, quietly muttering a song in between worked up breaths, his voice a bit shaky and rough like he hadn’t drunk water in a while.

Pidge jumped a bit with a gasp the second it began, and went to cover her mouth. Her hands were definitely shaking and she somehow looked like she had been holding her breath for a while and could finally breathe again. She took the hand off her face and leaned into the radio.

 

“Matt? Is that you?” She asked in a whispery exclamation. Hunk was fiddling his hands, both of them had watery eyes and shocked expressions on their faces. Pidge reached to touch the radio hesitantly.

The second her fingertips connected with the object the flimsy connection gave in and it was dead quiet in the room, the lights turned off. There was a drip of blood coming from Keith’s nose which he wiped away with his hand. He opened his eyes. Looking tired but still frowning he looked at Pidge.

“Alive.” He whispered simply, and if the surprised expression was anything to go by, he wasn’t expecting Pidge to tackle him in a hug. All of them started giggling more in relief than anything else, and Lance couldn’t help but wish Keith had fallen over because of the hug. That would’ve been cute.

**Author's Note:**

> thoughts??


End file.
